All that Glitters is Gold
by DrCyrusBortel
Summary: What could a biotech-themed supervillian possibly want with a hundred and sixty tonnes of gold? Easy. Just ask Karmi.


This author does not own Big Hero 6. This story was written for personal amusement.

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CHAPTER 1: RED IS THE NEW GOLD

Karmi picked up her tray and turned around to face the sun-lit, high-ceilinged atrium of SFIT's Central Cafeteria.

_Where to sit, where to sit… _

Her gaze ran across the tables near the plate glass windows (it was such a lovely day outside), past the secluded tables squeezed between the escalators and the shrubbery, and fixated on _that dork_ Hiro Hamata, who was once more engrossed in his laptop, surrounded by stacks of physical files, probably researching _another one of his stupid conspiracy theories_.

Karmi groaned at her own social limitations, marched off to Hiro's table, and took a seat.

"Hello, Hiro." She said. "Found any evidence to prove your crazy conspiracy theory yet? You know, you could check out those Illuminati sites. I'm _sure_ their impact factors are through the roof."

Hiro scowled. "No. In fact, according to Baymax's polygraph, 'Liv Amara is not making monsters'." Hiro put down his air quotes.

Karmi grinned.

Hiro balled his fists. "But I'm positive she stole that crate of gold. She starts a project that needs lots of gold, and the next day, a hundred and sixty tonnes of gold gets stolen! I mean, what are the odds!"

Karmi choked on her orange juice, and broke into peals of laughter.

Hiro frowned. "What's so funny?"

Karmi wiped her tray, and turned back to Hiro. "What's she going to do with a hundred and sixty tonnes of gold? Run a clinical trial with a billion patients? Transfect a cubic kilometer's worth of cell cultures? No conceivable biotech experiment would need _that much_ gold. It was obviously that Mr. Sparkles guy. Stealing cash is totally his M.O.."

Hiro's face grew dark, and his tone shifted a notch. "Woah, woah, woah. What do mean 'a billion patients'?"

Karmi looked befuddled. "Don't you know anything?"

Hiro, much to Karmi's surprise, shook his head. Then she remembered Hiro's area of expertise was in robotics.

Karmi took a deep breath. "Okay. One of the applications of gold in biotech is to make nanogold. Nanogold is super-duper-fine gold powder: the gold gets ground up into grains so tiny – nanoscale – the powder actually looks red instead of gold."

Hiro nodded. Nanotech made sense.

Karmi continued. "Well, for the past few decades, we've been using nanogold as a delivery vehicle for drugs and DNA. If you just inject someone with DNA or anticancer drugs, the drugs may get broken down before they get into the cells you want them to. So, you protect them in (or on top of) a particle, such as nanogold. You can also modify the particle so that it can recognize specific cell types, such as cancer cells, allowing you to deliver toxic cancer drugs or DNA only to your cancer cells instead of killing everything in sight. I'm not well versed in this stuff – gold is not the most common delivery vehicle - I use viral capsids and lipid membrane pockets, but the concept is all the same…"

"Yeah, yeah, gold nanoparticles can deliver DNA or drugs into cells, and can 'infect' people with DNA or drugs, but what do you mean 'a billion patients'!" Hiro was frantic.

Karmi frowned. "Well, we are talking gene therapy or drug delivery, right? How big was the last pill you swallowed? You don't typically need large doses of agent to cure or treat a single patient, unless you're giving, like, daily doses over a year. You need grams of gold per patient tops – and depending on what you're doing, milligrams or less might well be enough. Again, I'm no expert in this, but bioagents are _potent_ for a reason – you don't need much to affect a patient."

Hiro's eyes opened wide. "So… a hundred tonnes of gold – a hundred million grams of gold…"

Karmi nodded. "Would be enough for like, a hundred million patients or a billion patients – totally unrealistic numbers for any reasonable research project. So face it, Hiro. It was Mr. Sparkles."

Hiro's head began to spin. "Okay, okay. Karmi, this is really important. Let me go through this once more."

Karmi shrugged. Hiro counted off his fingers.

"One. Nanogold powder is often touted or used as a way to deliver drugs or DNA into people."

"Two. So whatever Liv Amara is up to, she's probably using gold as a delivery component of a bioagent – drugs or DNA."

Karmi frowned. "Yeah, but she's not up to anything. You're paranoid."

Hiro ignored her.

"Three. Bioagents are deadly or effective in tiny doses, in the range of a gram or even much less. If she was planning to expose a just few hundred rich people to her bioagent, she wouldn't need 160 tonnes of gold."

Hiro nodded. "So… Liv must be planning to 'infect' all of San Fransokyo with some bioagent!"

Karmi rolled her eyes. "With _160 tonnes_ of gold-based delivery vehicle? More like half the planet. Like I said, totally impossible…"

Hiro suddenly turned around, and, with an urgency that surprised Karmi, Hiro grabbed onto her shoulders and shook her. "Karmi, I need your help. Liv is planning on turning everyone into monsters or blackmailing everyone or giving everybody cancer or something. How would a person go about doing this?"

"I am not going to help you slander my boss, or flesh out your paranoid delusions!" Karmi stood, grabbed her tray, and started walking towards the nice table near the windows.

Hiro cried out from behind her. "Karmi, wait!"

Karmi frowned, bit her lip, and maintained her stride. She would just have to eat lunch alone today.

_Darned limited social skills. _

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*The density of gold is ~20 tonnes per cubic meter. The crate was about 2x2x2 meters – 8 cubic meters. Therefore, in the range of 160 tonnes.

**Do not take my word for it: see "A sight on the current nanoparticle-based gene delivery vectors" by Dizaj et al, 2014; and "Gold Nanoparticles in Diagnostics and Therapeutics for Human Cancer" by Singh et al, 2018. Gold is has at least these applications in biomedicine.


End file.
